No. 1 economic problem: Not enough babies

On “Forbes on Fox” on Jan. 30, 2010, the discussion turned to how population is affecting the U.S. economy. The panelists and Steve Forbes agreed that the USA needs more babies.

The No. 1 variable affecting our economy today is the decision by our government, from the late 1960s to 1985, to promote zero-population growth, with the number of births decreasing. The birthrate fell from 2.3 children per family to 1.3 at times. To maintain a population, a birthrate of 2.1 children is required. That decreased birthrate has impacted everything from demand for products to health-care costs to relaxed immigration laws and Social Security shortfalls.

As of 2008, the number of people between the ages of 40 and 55 has been decreasing as a percent of the total population. It is not a coincidence that the economy took a dive in 2008. This age group has the highest impact on the economy and is at its highest income. It is consuming the most products. This age group lives in big houses that require lots of furniture. They buy additional cars. They pay the most taxes. Their children are teenagers and college students with big consumption. So as this group is decreasing, so is the economy. And this age group will not increase again until 2022.

People over 55 consume less real products. They consume more services like health care, which have very little multiplier effect on the economy as compared to consuming products. Their children left home. They downscale their houses. They downscale their product consumption. A person over 55 consumes ten times more health care than one under 55. So those baby-boom children of the 1940s and 1950s are increasing health-care costs per capita as they age, while they consume fewer real products without enough people between 40 and 55 to offset them.

That decision to have fewer babies in the 1970s has caused health-care costs to increase, caused demand for manufactured products to decrease and caused insurance companies to welcome bailout relief from insuring elderly people. The insurance companies want the government to pick up insurance for those over 55.

And who was it that convinced America to have fewer babies? Liberals. Liberals were looking for any reason to justify abortion throughout the world. They placed a woman’s right to chose as more important than an unborn child’s right to life. They claimed that the 3 billion people on earth at that time would consume the earth when the population reached 4 billion. They predicted starvation, war, genocide at 4 billion. Well, today, more than 6 billion people are on the planet, and none of the catastrophes forecasted by the liberals has occurred. Those societies that decreased birthrates, like in Western Europe, Japan and the U.S., are now hurting economically. And those countries like Brazil and India that ignored the warnings are thriving.

Those liberals today are the very ones who now propose that our government step into the situation with more government – more government for bailouts, more government for regulating health insurance cost, more government to stimulate the economy, more government for everything.

The top supporter of abortion is Barack Obama. He even supports partial-birth abortion and infanticide. And he wants no restrictions on abortion of any kind while he promotes more government intervention to correct the problems from zero-population growth that liberal government caused.

It is stupid to think that programs from those very liberals who caused zero-population growth (actually it was negative population growth) are going to correct the problems to the economy and health care.

Government intervention caused the problem; more government intervention will not solve the problem.

Instead, we need to reject the liberal programs. We need to reject their health-care insurance plan, their cap-and-trade environment plan and their growth-of-government plan.

We need to get back to having babies. We need to get back to “growing” America without government restrictions. And if our children do not listen to this, then their problems in 30 more years will be even greater than those we face today.